Love lessons derived from an audio book...a good listen

I just finished listening to Randy Pausch's "The Last Lecture."
I am late to the table on it, I know. But Pausch's story to his children was a book I wanted to read and kept putting off...  so I took it in on my Ipod...while on the treadmill, my son's football practice, or running around the track.
Sometimes good reading comes from good audio. And Pausch's story left me breathless with mood swings. I laughed out loud and tried to suppress many sobs into a whimpers.
Pausch's walk through life, his love for his wife, his children and the way he didn't care about his dented car or to wait for a manager to fix a receipt, are telling examples of a life lived in the moment.
There are so many lessons from the Last Lecture that I am not sure which to single out.
Pausch's memory of his parents letting him paint his room with huge math equations and chess pieces sticks out for me. His parents let him create. It was important to him and they cautiously and supportively stood aside. His mom even showed the room off after he left home. And Pausch never forgot the subtle nod of permission and confidence  his parents gave him 38 years later.
I want to give my kids permission to create and follow through on ideas, be they design visions or anything else. I try hard to let go when the boys want to do something that might impinge my adult sensibilities.
I don't rearrange the ornaments at Christmas anymore. I let them put the ornaments in places that speak to them. This can be difficult if you grew up with the mantra..."Big ornaments on bottom, little ones on top," like I did. But I got over it.
I let the boys decorate the wall of their playroom totally in stickers because....Well, why the hell not?  It's their space and it's not like I do any entertaining among the match box cars and Bionicles.
And for the last two nights in a row, we let them sleep in the upstairs alcove on the floor with their flashlights because they thought it would be cool.
Who am I to judge this in-house adventure?
I just hope one day they remember their mom was alright.